The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

LTO hits level 4

Doubles capacity, boosts speed

Free whitepaper – Avoiding costs from oversizing data center and network room infrastructure

The industry collaboration Linear Tape Open (LTO) Program has released a new version of its Ultrium standard for tape storage.

The IBM, HP and Quantum-led group's new release is fourth in a roadmap of six iterations. The new cartidges double the capacity of current LTO 3 tapes to 1.6TB, assuming 2:1 compression.

Transfer performance is improved too, up to 120MB/s from 80MB/s for uncompressed data.

The backwards-compatable Ultrium 4 standard also builds on the compliance-friendly non-rewritable feature brought into generation three by adding 256-bit hardware encryption.

Vendors are expected to begin punting gear based on Ultrium 4 in the first half of this year. According to IDC analysts, LTO drives claim more than 82 per cent of midrange tape shipments. ®

Free whitepaper – Fundamental Principles of Air Conditioners for Information Technology

Don’t Miss

Data centre boxesAt what point do servers become HPC beasts?

Tech Panel El Reg barometer survey. Your input needed

Intel Xeon InsideThe state of the x86 server estate

Proper webcast Your peers are telling you

Large Hadron ColliderLarge Hadron Collider team flicks switch on Xeon grid

But hurry up with octo? We switch on tomorrow

ElephantOpen-sourcers promise cloud elephant won't trample your code

ApacheCon 09 Hadoop buffed for 2010 'completion'